Emergent Research

EMERGENT RESEARCH is focused on better understanding the small business sector of the US and global economy.

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The authors are Steve King and Carolyn Ockels. Steve and Carolyn are partners at Emergent Research and Senior Fellows at the Society for New Communications Research. Carolyn is leading the coworking study and Steve is a member of the project team.

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May 17, 2016

Record Number of Americans Working Past 65

Bloomberg's I'll Never Retire covers the trend towards people working past the traditional retirement age - or at least the recent traditional retirement age.

As the article chart below shows, the percentage of Americans aged 65 and older who are still in the workforce is at an all-time high.

The shift towards older Americans staying in the workforce is not new. As is clear from the chart, it started in the mid-90s. The reasons for people working longer are also not new and fairly straight forward.

About half, according to the article, mention a financial need to work and/or needing access to benefits. About one third said the primary reason was they enjoy work and/or want to stay engaged.

Older workers are, of course, much more likely to be independent workers (self-employed, contractors, etc.) than younger workers. So this is one of the key trends that is helping to drive the growth of the independent workforce.